Wed, October 18, 2017

Through Sunday, October 15, 2017, Illinois archery deer hunters harvested a preliminary total of 7,793 deer, compared to 7,738 for the same period in 2016.

Harvest to date has consisted of 69% does and 31% males (5340:2453). Top five counties were Jefferson (219), Fulton (201), Pike (201), Franklin (169), and Jackson (156).

Comments

This is the first year since 2012 that we can see any noticeable increase in the population we hunt. And we have only killed one doe now in the past 4 seasons.

I’m hearing the same from others around the southern part of the state. So I expect total harvest should be somewhat higher than last year.

Posted by bw on October 19

BW don’t let these numbers fool anyone to much. I would say that crossbows have something to do with the numbers. We either now have a bunch of new arrow launchers in the woods or they are finding the animal that they are actually shooting at. I wouldn’t want to be walking around any public hunting ground with this new ARMY of crossbow hunters. There should be a greater success rate of harvest deer with crossbows I would think. It brings back all the guys who couldn’t use a bow and it also gets kids out hunting earlier. Crossbows can have a positive effect on hunting and there are going to be some negatives also. There are still a lot of crops in so it has to be one of the reasons the numbers of harvested deer are up. Sound managing though is always the biggest reason. Good Luck this year!!

Posted by muzzyman on October 19

Believe me….they aren’t fooling me!!!

I’m one of the biggest pessimists on this site about the state of our IL deer herd. But it’s easy to say that the numbers appear to have increased slightly…when the numbers were previously so low.

For example, if you only have 2 deer on your property this year but next year you have 4. You have DOUBLED your population, but you still don’t have many deer!!